I havent heard that rumour but I did watched the Tigers vs Blaze game and listening to Andrew Gaze explain the tigers lack of urgency & desire to win convinced me the tigers possibly are on the verge of missing out on the NBL finals.. I know it might be a big call at this stage of the season with lots of games left but I feel they DO NOT have any floor leadership or direction that they once had with Patty Mills..it was so important and got them playing awsome basketball.

I felt sorry for Andrew having to commentate in front of his beloved Tigers crowd making the comment that this was one of the worst games the tigers have played this season and the Tigers Legend was embarrassed!

True

CEO probs lost heaps of money on that game or something. I only lost 150 and still i was pissed off.

Seamus McPeake is a disgrace to the tigers and the league, the leagues most notorious worst owner.

Disgraceful the 3 of them left Cairns. Tigers were terrible tonight. Hope they've got Patty on the way...

Corletto will be laughing his ass off.

Suprised he didnt sack Dorsey. He's lost his game & totally sucks!!

So do Sydney Sack Ratch and sign ubaka now with Bruce out???

Ubaka would be a great asset to a lot of teams in this league.

Wonder if they've got Patty on the way & thats why its Ubaka & not Dorsey. Mills & Dillon is a strong backcourt. Is Gleeson safe? They played terribly & without desire. Trev must be having sleepless nights!!

Reports that McPeake sacked him without first telling Gleeson or Greer. Gleeson's contract says he has final say on players.

Somehwere Rod Grizzard is starting a help group.

Twitter say he'll be on SEN Radio this morning to discuss why he's walked out on the club.

Please post on here later if anyone listens to it

Heard the interveiw this morning on SEN....sounds like the Seamus walked in gave it to the playing group and them sacked Ubaka.

there is always 2 sides to every story but i must say i'm surpirsed it was Ubaka getting the flick as it wouldn't have surprised me if this had happened to Dorsey!

Will be really interesting to see how this plays out over the next few days as the Tigers have no PG's (Dillon is a combo guard) so hopefully Patty is on a plane back to Melb right now!

Kings could do worse than to call Ubaka but then again they played really well with 2 pass first point guards against Townsville (i thought it really help Bose & co to be a scoring threat)

Ubaka suffered from being a shooting guard forced to play point guard. He was hopeless in making his team mates better or setting up opportunities. Slow getting the ball moving up the court, slow moving the ball around, and not enough drive-and-dish. For that I blame Gleeson. Anyway, Gleeson's decision-making suggests that he won't be round much longer either.

Listening to SEN atm (approx 8:45am mexican time) and newsreader said Ubaka was sensationally sacked after getting into a change room argument with CEO Shamus McPeake.

SEN radio interview
http://www.sen.com.au/audioplayer/Audio/Melbourne-Tigers-Ayinde-Ubaka/3715
McPeake pointed fingers, told Ubaka to leave and find another job, so he did. Apparently McPeake and someone else got into argument after Ubaka left. Ubaka very diplomatic in the interview.

Melbourne Age Story:
Tigers CEO unleashes tirade, fires import
Roy Ward
January 16, 2012 - 12:30AM
Read later

Ayinde Ubaka in action for the Melbourne Tigers. Photo: Getty Images
MELBOURNE Tigers season was in disarray last night with owner and chief executive Seamus McPeake firing import Ayinde Ubaka without his coach's knowledge.

A source close to the team told The Age McPeake stormed into the Tigers' locker-room and unleashed a tirade on the players before firing Ubaka on the spot following the Tigers 73-60 loss to the Gold Coast Blaze at the State Netball and Hockey Centre.

Ubaka confirmed the report last night via a text message but wouldn’t comment further until later today.

Advertisement: Story continues below
But he made it clear he was furious about his axing and the "unprofessional" manner in which it happened.

Ubaka’s sacking was believed to have happened without the knowledge of coach Trevor Gleeson and captain Tommy Greer who were facing a post game press conference.

Ubaka also confirmed his teammates and coaches knew nothing about the move until it had happened.

Ubaka’s sacking would contravene one of the key agreements of Gleeson’s agreement to join the club as he demanded final say on all player movements.

During Gleeson's first press conference with the club both McPeake and Gleeson himself confirmed the coach had final say on his players.

McPeake was reported to have made a similar move last season where he was said to have threatened to not pay his players due to their poor performance.

McPeake has repeatedly denied those reports.

Former Tigers centre Luke Nevill told The Age last season to “ask Seamus” when Nevill was asked about if McPeake had stormed into the locker-room.

Nevill left the team to take an offer from a Russian club soon after the reported confrontation.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/basketball/tigers-ceo-unleashes-tirade-fires-import-20120116-1q1p2.html#ixzz1jZ99XuEI

The simple fact is they only had two guards because they didnt replace Mills, forcing Ubaka and Dillon to carry too much of the load. Given how competitive they have been with a pretty average roster - no Mills or Burston for two months - Ubaka has done a solid job.

At this stage Mills cant get a clearance from the CBA, so the Tigers will need to get an import out here quick smart with only 10 games left if they are 1) going to make playoffs and 2) the import is going to qualify.

At 9-9 it is hardly panic stations though.

I mean, at 9-9 it should hardly be panic stations, but they seem to be in disarray now.

I'm only laughing harder than ever. when they signed the 3 Taipans and Gleeson they were all arrogant acting like they gonna win and Seamus thinking he's gonna win a championship after the shake up. Now that's karma

As a Tigers fan, I cant question McPeake's passion for the team or game.....but as an owner, a face of a club, and representative of the sport (which is very concerning as he is obese) he is simply a douche.

There is a difference between emotion and logic. Rather than sleeping on it and then meeting this morning to discuss with the coach he pulls the trigger.Feel sorry for the coach being undermined.Al must be laughing over in Japan.

Al got axed for standing up for his players (Devendorf) we'll see what Gleeson do now

I'm not sure how Dorsey survived the axing! Wondering whether Gleeson is soon to follow? I hope so. For a previous coach of the year he has been disappointing.

I listened to the SEN interview as well but Im not so sure its all done and dusted.

Chewy said Seamus had a blow up and told him to get out, so he did. He then however went on to say that he was still going to go to training today and carry on with his daily routine - maybe he is rethinking actually walking out of the changeroom in the heat of the moment?
Maybe it was just a locker room blowup that got out of hand and in the cold light of day Seamus and Chewy will have a chat and move forward?

God knows they need to with 2 matches this weekend that could make or break their season.

The NBL website confirms that Ubaka has been sacked for what that is worth.
Tropical Booz - not sure if Patty is on the way back when he was sitting in the crowd yesterday watching St Mary's beat Portland.

Another thing to consider is how quick they can get a replacement.By the time he gets here and the paperwork is processed it might take upto a fortnight.

its the tigers, happy days, itll be done when they say its done.

yes kings should sack ratzsch and get ubaka straight away. while there at it get gleeson after hes sacked.

homocide!!!!!!

Don't like the way this went down but without the fat C^nt as someone put it there wouldn't be a Melbourne Tigers or a team in Melb which would equate to no NBL so unless your a Millionaire with plenty to spend your just gonna have to suck it up and relise this is the way Seamus goes about his business!

TW, as you mentioned, Seamus put up the cash to buy the club, so he CAN run it anyway he likes, but he will soon not have any players wanting to play with the club due to the way he carries on. That's the part he'll have to suck up.

Melbourne are a really solid close knit organization who really look after their athletes, lol

Latest offering from Tigers:

In a brief text message to The Age, a Tigers spokesman said Ubaka was released and the club would be making no further comment at his stage.

'Ubaka walked out of a team post-game address from Tigers chief executive Seamus McPeake and has been released from his contract,' he said.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/basketball/ubaka-to-front-up-to-tigers-training-despite-sacking-20120116-1q2fz.html#ixzz1jaLfQG00

prediction: ubaka will end up staying at the tigers.
But melbourne still need to sign a replacement for mills, dont know why the hell they never did

Unfortunately, the NBL will put up with Seamus because they need the Tigers right now. Once the new Melbourne team gets established and has dragged away swags of supporters, then maybe they'll finally do something about his behaviour. By then it will be too late for the Tigers fans, though - I reckon we'll start seeing them stay away.

McPeake should shut his sizeable pie hole, and stick to administering club affairs........leave the coaching and player management to the coach!

Only an absolute egomaniac would behave in such a manner, pull yourself togther McPeake!

Seamus seems to be getting all "Sudam Hussain" on the club from the look of it. Might have to re-brand the tigers "The Melbourne Dictators".

Frankly the guy can invest as much money as he wants, but he's an absolute joke if he thinks that gives him the right to tell people how to do their job when he has no experience in said profession.

I don't mind an owner being vocal during game time as if he was just another fan, but his ego needs to be checked quick. I wouldn't mind seeing the next melbourne franchise with Homicide and Ubaka as the backcourt and during the first local derby, just have them both give Seamus the bird.

I'd love to see Seamus pay for his behavior. But Homicide and Ubaka on the same team would be disastrous

The Tigers NBL franchise is just Seamus' way of trying to show everyone how big his d*** is. Somebody is obviously compensating for something ;) LOL

You could be onto something there, Anon. Even if Shameless had twelve inches, he probably hasn't been able to see it for thirty years. That's got to affect a man's psyche somehow.

I wonder if McPeake also asked Ubaka for his Tigers polo back before he left?

Check out the article by Mookie on A Stern Warning...

http://www.asternwarning.com/201201161067/articles/nbl/on-tigers-and-keeping-it-professional.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

"Tigers, both the "Melbourne" and "Xinjiang Flying" species, have done an admirable job in recent times of showing us how not to treat your basketball players as employees..."

Ubaka on Twitter:

"For the record Fans, I was disrespected & told to leave by the owner. I never would quit on coach,team or the fans. Much love "

McPeake makes Mark Cuban look passive.

He recruits the coty & 2 gun imports from last season & it all goes pear shaped. Just goes to show looking good on paper means little. Seamus frustrated to have made no improvement on last season. Could have kept homicide & had dmac & giddey & been middle of the road - & not looked this stupid!

He's obviously a control freak who is passionate about his tigers being contenders. No one likes him & his style but he may have just saved their season. At the end of the day the players are his employees & thats exactly how he treats it. Told Ubaka to 'find a new job'. Ubaka & Dorsey look terrible in whatever it is Trev is running. I'd sack em both!

Mate of mine in the crowd reckons after the game seamus was running around screaming he'd 'sacked the scumbag' & called him a 'useless piece of shit'! He obviously does't hold back & why should he when he's paying people good money & getting no effort in return!

We are about to find out if Gleeson can coach...

I really can't understand why the Tigers aren't running more. With phenomenal athletes like Dorsey, Dillon, Lewis & co, why not run the fast-break as your first option instead of slow boring sh.t which gives slow heavy defenders an equal chance. I remember seeing one quarter a few games ago when they ran every ball and jeez they did well.

^^ Tropical Booze

Are you actually serious mate? Your actually have the might to say that Ubaka is not trying his best out there and not giving in his best effort? You have to be out of your mind.

Ubaka will be back in the NBL next year as i believe he is the proud owner of a new pooch.Remember mans best friend is a dog!!!!

Ubaka is over-rated anyway. And the structure looks horrible with him running it. He wants to score too much, and do his little hesitation thing then jack a three. The offense is so stationary when he has the ball in his hands.
Ontop of that he is a below average person.

And the reason Dorsey still has a job is because he didn't walk out of the room when McPeake went bananas. If your boss came in and started yelling at you at work, then you walked out of the meeting you would get the sack too... this is no different.

^ that isn't what one of the players has said...

I would never stand there and take abuse from anyone let alone an overweight dickhead, I couldn't care less if he was my boss or not

Seamus McPeake press conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ag4nkSh7Q

Seamus McPeake press conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ag4nkSh7Q

Very amusing happy days!

A train i am suggesting that changes were needed. They were completely out rebounded on Sun & even the coach said they didnt want the ball as bad as GC. Seamus wanted a bite & Ubaka obliged. The Taipans & D Corletto would have little grins from ear to ear right about now!

Very amusing happy days!

A train i am suggesting that changes were needed. They were completely out rebounded on Sun & even the coach said they didnt want the ball as bad as GC. Seamus wanted a bite & Ubaka obliged. The Taipans & D Corletto would have little grins from ear to ear right about now!

bahahaha Happy Days nice work

McPeake needs the help of Jenny Craig. If he loses weight, he will feel better about himself and that will reflect on how he treats his staff.

So what do we need most - a PG or a Centre? Personally, I'd go all-out for a good Centre so we can push Trigger or Rush out to PF.
I still reckon we play the wrong kind of game for the guys we have. Trigger and Rush I'd keep cos they're playing well. Dorsey's better than he's showing on offense right now, but he plays great defense. I'd keep Dillon because I reckon the combo of him + Dorsey + a decent PG running hard would be great to watch.
Otherwise, I reckon everyone else is bench material (sorry guys) - certainly not starter material compared to the rest of the league. Time to start trading up.

Ubaka to wollongong- cut both catron and "showtime" (irony) and bring in ayinde!